Reviewer: Holly Shifting Shadows by Patricia Briggs
Series: , Mercy Thompson
Also in this series: Frost Burned , Night Broken, Blood Bound, Fire Touched, Silence Fallen , Moon Called, Blood Bound , Iron Kissed, Bone Crossed , River Marked , Frost Burned, Storm Cursed , Night Broken, Fire Touched, Storm Cursed, Smoke Bitten
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: September 2nd 2014
Genres: Fiction, Fantasy
Pages: 464
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Mercy Thompson’s world just got a whole lot bigger…
A collection of all-new and previously published short stories featuring Mercy Thompson, “one of the best heroines in the urban fantasy genre today” (Fiction Vixen Book Reviews), and the characters she calls friends…
Includes the new stories…“Silver”“Roses in Winter”“Redemption”“Hollow”
…and reader favorites“Fairy Gifts”“Gray”“Alpha and Omega”“Seeing Eye”“The Star of David”“In Red, with Pearls”
This is a collection of short stories set in Briggs’ Alpha and Omega/Mercy Thompson world. There are four new, never-before-published stories and six reader favorites. Of the six previously published stories, I’d read one; Alpha and Omega, the companion novella to Cry Wolf, is a personal favorite. I skimmed over that one here, since I’ve read it numerous times.
I don’t recommend reading this collection if you haven’t read at least the first few books in the Mercy Thompson series. These stories aren’t meant to stand alone. Each one includes a forward by Briggs with little details about how or why she wrote each story, and where they fall in the series, which I thought was a nice touch.
Of the new stories, the two I enjoyed most were Silver and Roses in Winter.
Silver is written mostly from Sam’s point-of-view and tells the story of his first meeting with Ariana. It’s set during the time when Bran was still ensnared by his mother, the witch. It wasn’t a light read, but I loved it.
Roses in Winter is the story of the young girl whose father asked Mercy for help in Blood Bound (for those who don’t remember, he was the reporter whose daughter was turned when she was ten. For three years they kept her caged during the full moon, but she was becoming too strong. They sent her to Bran to help her learn to control her wolf). Interestingly, the story is told from Asil’s point-of-view. He unexpectedly befriends Kara, but he’s afraid he may lose her as she isn’t able to control her shift. Asil is a character I’ve been interested in since he was introduced in Cry Wolf, and I really enjoyed this story. I’m glad we got to see what happened to Kara.
This is an excellent collection and definitely worth reading. Having all the novellas in one place is great, and each story brings the characters to life. I’m going to grade the collection as a whole, rather than each individual story separately.
4.5 out of 5
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